Sunday, November 20, 2011

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

About the book:

The now-extinct Brill gifted humankind with
the technology of space travel, but the implacable Swarm is determined to wipe
all humans from the face of the universe. But the human race won’t give in so
easily. On board the spaceship Fearless, a team led by Dr. Rhys Aubrey and
Major Jim Tanner is tasked with developing technology for the fight and making
new allies to trade for whatever edge they can get.

Every day the Fearless ventures forth to new worlds and faces challenges that
forge strong bonds of friendship among the crew—and perhaps something more
between Rhys and Jim. In a life filled with danger and trouble around every
corner, are Rhys and Jim ready to risk their hearts too?

An excerpt from the book:

He
gradually became aware that he’d slowed his breathing to match Tanner’s. His
left side was still freezing, but his right shoulder and thigh were pressed up
against Tanner, and the warm contact was making him sleepy.

“Better?”
Tanner asked, long after Rhys has thought he’d gone back to sleep.

“Better,”
Rhys agreed with a sigh. He
relaxed slightly closer to Tanner.
“Now I know the secret of your freakish metabolism,” he said, smiling
into the darkness.

There
was a long pause. “Oh, really?”
Tanner said at last.

“Yes.”
Rhys grinned at the ceiling. “You
put out heat like a nuclear reactor. You probably burn something like three hundred
calories an hour just sitting still.
No wonder everyone wants to sleep with you.” No sooner had he said the
words, he realized how they sounded, and he briefly bit his lip in horror. “I mean, that is to say, off the ship,
you know, when it’s really cold.”

“Go
to sleep, Aubrey.” Tanner rolled over onto his shoulder again, presenting his
back to Rhys.

Impossibly,
he did go to sleep. He must have, because sometime during the night, he
gravitated toward Tanner’s warmth and spooned up against him, sliding one arm
along the fleece, and worming his hand under the blanket to place it against
warm skin. He wouldn’t even have been aware that he’d done this, except that he
muzzily recognized the stirring of someone beneath his hand before Jim
stretched into his touch and rolled toward him.

“Aubrey.”
It wasn’t a tone Rhys had heard very often. Tanner was usually the epitome of
Texas charm. Whenever Rhys had heard this particular note in the past, he’d
always been reminded of the Don’t Mess With Texas motto. “Mind telling me what
your hand is doing on my cock?”